Inmates moved after bloody Venezuela prison clash

Venezuelan police officers stand guard outside the morgue where the bodies of prisoners killed in a riot were taken in Barquisimeto,Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. A clash between National Guard soldiers and armed inmates led to a deadly riot Friday that reportedly left dozens of people dead. According to a local hospital director the death toll has risen to 61 and 120 injured. (AP Photo/Misael Castro/El Informador)
— AP

Venezuelan police officers stand guard outside the morgue where the bodies of prisoners killed in a riot were taken in Barquisimeto,Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. A clash between National Guard soldiers and armed inmates led to a deadly riot Friday that reportedly left dozens of people dead. According to a local hospital director the death toll has risen to 61 and 120 injured. (AP Photo/Misael Castro/El Informador)
/ AP

An injured prison inmate is carried into the hospital in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. A bloody riot erupted at the Uribana prison in the central Venezuelan city of Barquisimeto Friday when National Guard troops clashed with inmates. Venezuelan media reported that dozens were killed. It was the latest in a series of bloody riots in the country's prisons.(AP Photo/Alexander Sanchez/El Informador)— AP

An injured prison inmate is carried into the hospital in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. A bloody riot erupted at the Uribana prison in the central Venezuelan city of Barquisimeto Friday when National Guard troops clashed with inmates. Venezuelan media reported that dozens were killed. It was the latest in a series of bloody riots in the country's prisons.(AP Photo/Alexander Sanchez/El Informador)
/ AP

An injured prison inmate is escorted by a policeman into the hospital in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. A bloody riot erupted at the Uribana prison in the central Venezuelan city of Barquisimeto Friday when National Guard troops clashed with inmates, and Venezuelan media reported that dozens were killed. It was the latest in a series of bloody riots in the countrie's prisons.(AP Photo/Rafael Rodriguez/El Informador)— AP

An injured prison inmate is escorted by a policeman into the hospital in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. A bloody riot erupted at the Uribana prison in the central Venezuelan city of Barquisimeto Friday when National Guard troops clashed with inmates, and Venezuelan media reported that dozens were killed. It was the latest in a series of bloody riots in the countrie's prisons.(AP Photo/Rafael Rodriguez/El Informador)
/ AP

Relatives of inmates react outside the Uribana prison in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. A bloody riot erupted at the Uribana prison in the central Venezuelan city of Barquisimeto Friday when National Guard troops clashed with inmates. Venezuelan media reported that dozens were killed. It was the latest in a series of bloody riots in the country's prisons.(AP Photo/Roger Varela/El Informador)— AP

Relatives of inmates react outside the Uribana prison in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. A bloody riot erupted at the Uribana prison in the central Venezuelan city of Barquisimeto Friday when National Guard troops clashed with inmates. Venezuelan media reported that dozens were killed. It was the latest in a series of bloody riots in the country's prisons.(AP Photo/Roger Varela/El Informador)
/ AP

CARACAS, Venezuela 
Venezuelan authorities finished evacuating more than 2,000 inmates on Sunday from a prison where the government said 58 people were killed in one of the deadliest prison clashes in the nation's history.

More than two days after the bloodshed, Penitentiary Service Minister Iris Varela released an official death toll and said 46 wounded victims remained hospitalized.

She said the evacuation of Uribana prison in the city of Barquisimeto was completed on Sunday morning. Inmates were loaded aboard buses and driven to other prisons.

She and other officials appeared on television inside the empty prison compound, among wandering dogs and sheep that the inmates had kept. They pointed out makeshift shacks constructed with wood scraps and sheets of zinc where some inmates had taken shelter in the overcrowded prison.

Varela said that the violence erupted on Friday when groups of armed inmates began firing shots at National Guard troops who were attempting to carry out an inspection.

"There was resistance to what was imminent ... a peaceful inspection," Varela said, adding that groups of prisoners had opened fire "on a large scale."

Those killed included inmates as well as two Protestant pastors and one soldier, she said. One victim's body was burned, Varela said.

The death toll provided by the government differed from that given a day earlier by Dr. Ruy Medina, director of Central Hospital in the city, who had said 61 were reported killed and about 120 were wounded. Medina said that nearly all of the injuries were from gunshots.

Relatives of the victims mourned in funerals, while survivors' families waited anxiously to hear where inmates were taken.

"I still don't know where my son is," said Nayibe Mendez, the mother of a 22-year-old inmate who was unhurt. She spoke by telephone from outside the prison, where she and others gathered waiting for lists showing where their relatives were transported.

The riot was the latest in a series of deadly clashes in Venezuela's overcrowded and often anarchical prisons, where inmates typically obtain weapons and drugs with the help of corrupt guards. Critics called it proof that the government is failing to get a grip on a worsening national crisis in its penitentiaries.

The gunbattles seized attention amid uncertainty about President Hugo Chavez's future, while he remained in Cuba recovering and undergoing treatment more than six weeks after his latest cancer surgery.

Government officials pledged a thorough investigation, while critics said there should have been ways for the authorities to prevent such bloodshed.

The riot was the deadliest in nearly two decades. In January 1994, more than 100 inmates died in the country's bloodiest prison violence on record when a riot and fire set by inmates tore through a prison in the western city of Maracaibo. In 1992, about 60 inmates were killed in a riot in a Caracas prison.

Varela said the government decided to send troops to search the prison after reports of clashes between groups of inmates during the past two days. She said the government is battling against "mafias" that slip weapons into prisons, and that the authorities next plan to thoroughly search Uribana prison for hidden weapons.